Please Pentax, Pleeease!

I'm not for a moment suggesting that there's ever any *intention* to be anything but impartial, or impugning your or anyone else's motives in the slightest.

Nor am I suggesting you change the way you do your own reviews. Anyone that reviews anything should do it as they see fit, and that is perfectly fine, although they have to realise that others will not necessarily agree with either the approach or the results. I always found PU mag reviews lightweight in the extreme, for instance, but that's not to say others might not have enjoyed them.

Inevitably, though, there will always be an element of "well they would say that wouldn't they" about glowing reviews from people so close to home, as it were. That's not a criticism, it's just the way it is.

if Pentax wants to improve a compact camera line, why not release an optio wr, and an 1-10 and an rz with threaded lens barrels and then offer a handful of screw on lens adaptors, like some companies do with video cameras? also add built in flash control function for the Pentax p-ttl flash units?

as for evil, I already stated my case...

the only area Pentax needs to give serious consideration to is the Nikon, Lumix and Canon "Serious" compacts segment.... an all metal, weather sealed, p-ttl hotshoe upscale compact with a nice sharp zoom.... just to compete with the g12 class cameras?

I have owned several Pentax compacts, my first was an S10, I took my daughters graduation photos with it and they are superb, i have the 1-10 which produces lovely images, despite the crap reviews saying otherwise, mind you, the X90 reviews aren't brilliant but the camera is a super image maker.It seems that some people will believe reviews blindly, you need to own and use a camera to make a`judgement, the same way you would if you bought a car.
So, you think they "are lousy", have you tried other brands,i have owned panasonic,canon and others, canon menus beggar belief.
Regards
Chris

I bought a serious compact, a Canon G10. The image quality is very disappointing, when compared to my Pentax DSLRs. Despite the G10s 14mp image, the quality is not usually sufficient for good A3 prints. A 6mp Pentax iST DSLR gives better quality.

In my opinion, all compacts give inferior image quality.

I'm not sure a G12 could be classed as a compct!!!Anyway, I remember buying a G5 based on the rave reviews and was so dissapointed with it.
The point is should Pentax follow the crowd or go their own way?? Pentax dsl's are small anyway,so why create a format which is probably a flash in the pan, the slr has stood the test of time.


Regards
Chris

A while back, there was a Canadian Pentax rep that posted here looking for photos to use for marketing.
Do to the way he worded the request, and the number of spammers and scammers you find trolling the board, he got a less than friendly reception from some of the regulars.... like me...... needless to say when his claims to represent Pentax got verified, he got a few takers of forum members offering up some nice shots.

Why am I mentioning this?

I was a Pentax film shooter before going digital.
I opted for a canon g5 over a dslr for two reasons...
Pentax was slow to the market with the *ist d line and there were dust issues with the sensors on the first dslrs to hit the market, as well as price concerns.

This Pentax rep did check out my site and enquired about a number of images he found suitable for his purposes.... about half were shot with the g5 the other half split between scans off negs shot with the mz5 and a few shot with the ds2....

Conclusion: it was hard to tell the shots from the g5 and ds2. The reason the rep like so many canon shots? there simply was more images on my site that got shot with the canon at that point.... we had just bought the ds2 and had only updated the site with a couple images from it.
Why? I was using the g5 as a digital proofer for studio strobe lit work when shooting film until I realized how good the g5 was and stopped shooting film, I bought the ds2 to avoid buying a new lens selection. and waited and waited for the k10 which I bought two of.

The truth is in low light the compacts suck..(even my k10's aren't that great in low light to be honest, they're good but the kx is better) but with good light, or advanced flash or studio strobes they can match our d-slrs for image quality. Handy little back-ups to have... also they are good in the dark as most can focus in pitch black conditions, again the secret is to have off camera flashes!

I for one would not refuse to buy a g12, were it not for patiently waiting for a decent Pentax to replace that dearly missed g5.

Chrissinkpen.

Yes, I think they are lousy... And yes, I have tried other brands.
The great majority of the kind of photography I like to do most, is done with Canon digital compacts and ancient Olympus film compacts. The Canons are an A70 and an S40. Both of them are very old models. The sad thing is, they are still much better built and produce better images than any Pentax compact available NOW!. That is a disgrace for Pentax.

The RS-1000 is typical of Pentax thought process. It can do lots of clever things. It has an ingenious face detection system that delays the shutter until the face is smiling. It can't produce a decent image above 400 ISO, but can recognise teeth!. It also has the vital feature of being able to have bits of vinyl crap stuck on the front. You can even print your own. Perhaps they hope you can print VIVITAR on one of the skins and stick that on. It would be more in keeping with the quality of this camera.
The I-10 is smarter still. It's face recognition system not only works for humans, but pets, too! Yes indeed. The image quality is bad, but it can recognise dear little Tiddles, so the IQ doesn't matter.

Pentax compact cameras are a stain on the Pentax name. The company is rightly respected for It's Dslrs. It has upped I'ts game in that division recently and is now reaping the rewards, shifting tons of K5s K-Rs and K-Xs. A top quality EVIL system to go along with the fine Dslrs and lenses would put Pentax back where it belongs. Seen as a quality maufacturer.
Pentax compacts are low end. Better leave that market to Vivitar, Kodak, Bush and Goodmans. Argos catalogue crap for the masses. Pentax should not make any camera that costs under £300. I want high quality photographic tools from Pentax. Products that continue It's heritage and reputation as a producer of the finest optical instruments... Not stupid little plastic point and shoot dross, full of monkey tennis gimmicks.

The wr's are good cameras. always have been.

I get what you are saying about point and shoots and almost agree with you, but for different reasons.
I believe cell phones will kill all compact camera sales below the $350.00 price point.
I never replaced my g5 due to the fact that my hd camcorders take decent stills as does my iphone, for snap shooting, and my dslrs are usually handy as well..
But if I had to buy a camera or a cell phone with camera, there is little reason to consider a cheap p&s, much less carry one around. I bought my daughter a decent little samsung p&s for christmas one year. She used it on a trip to vegas and after she got a new cell phone we've never seen that camera being used since. Even my little boy has an old cell phone with no cell plan for shooting videos.... (tip: even with no cell plan a deactivated cell phone can still call 911 in North America and most can be tracked in an emergency)

Evil would be a mistake for Pentax. First, like the d-slrs, Pentax would be buying the sensor, which means others out there will have cameras equally capable... then there would be a new line of lenses, Pentax still gets bit at the sales counters when store clerks and canikonians proclaim the lens selection is too limited for Pentax.

Pentax would be better served offering the sensor from the kr with live hdmi out, avchd or h264 video compression, and pelicile mirror for live af even during video shooting in a kx sized (or smaller) body at a price point to keep it competitive with evils, and rely on the k lenses to boost sales. another evil in the marketplace will just result in longer waits for d-slr bodies and lenses for existing Pentax shooters.

Have you tried an LX3? From what I've seen, definitely the best IQ of any compact.

Can we have the option of regular AVI as well please Don, so I can actually play these files back on my PC? Ta!

the three things people look for in an evil:
Small size.
decent stills.
decent video.

I'm afraid Pentax will have to really focus on video for such a camera to distinguish itself from the existing lineup.... and come paired with the new 35mm lens which, BTW I'm impressed with.

They could even brand it as the new Pentax E(vi) L X.

There could be heavy licensing fees to pay shortly for
avchd

link
interesting read....
also flip over to Popular Photography and look at the first three (or four) winners for thier best of the year awards... then tell me I'm wrong about where Pentax needs to focus...
you combine all of the main features of those cameras in one... and you wind up with exactly what I'm saying Pentax could make the kx into.

now is the time for Pentax to jump into the video d-slr market..... Pentax primes on a small lightweight pelicile mirrored kx with a real glass pentaprism viewfinder.... won't gut sales from Pentax's existing d-slr lineup but would appeal to both evil buyers and sony/canon video shooters.

Priced at the kx's price point.

I'm looking around for the person you think you're arguing with, Don! I certainly agree with you. Although personally I'm happy with MF and definitely prefer mjpeg capture becaus eit doesn't make me need to buy a new PC, I can see that a lot of people would rather their camera behaved more like their Sony Handicam and probably have a bit more computing power than me to edit their videos (if indeed they ever edit them at all).

why is anyone arguing about compact cameras? Its a dead market, cameraphones are the "always in your pocket" market - if Pentax really wanted to improve their entry-level visability, they should chase licencing deals - for example, if they hadn't fallen-out with Samsung, the camera on my Galaxy S might not have been so rubbish...

Very far from dead in terms of units sold flossie! We're talking a lot of cameras and no-one will want to have no share in that market.

Camera phones are not high enough quality yet for more than very casual snap-shotting.